How to AVOID children on cruises?

[ZeroTX]

There's no specific forum that I can find that relates to this specific question. We just took a Royal Caribbean cruise during Spring Break to the Caribbean (7 days) and aboard we were told there were 1,300 teenagers. 1,300. Seriously. Some were 4 to a room and onboard with a "chaperone" couple responsible for 20+ teens.

 

That number doesn't account for the number of families with children aboard, many of whom were allowed to roam throughout the ship unsupervised. On more than one occasion I entered an elevator to find EVERY button pushed and I witnessed children SITTING in an elevator riding it up and down. As elderly guests waited in wheelchairs for elevators that seemed to never come, kids rode in them as amusement. The running in the halls, the unchecked voice volumes, babies crying, AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

 

So, my question: Are there 21 and up cruises or cruise ships that specifically prohibit children from boarding? Because when I go on vacation, I want people who are like-minded and like-matured and I'd rather never go on a Spring Break cruise again if it's going to be like this.

 

-Michael, a.k.a. ZeroTX

[mehitabel]

Not sure why you thought a Spring Break cruise was a good idea! Any holiday time is going to be pretty kid-heavy.

 

That's why we checked calendars (you can find nationwide ones online) to make sure Spring Breaks would be over, at least for the U.S., when we booked our cruise. Don't have kids, don't want kids, don't want many around on our vacation. In the future, you might want to check that out.

 

Also, some of the pricier lines (Oceania, Radisson, Regent, etc.) aren't likely to have many kids aboard. We'd love to try those, but until we have the money, we cruise when there's less of a likelihood of ankle-biters running around.

[ZeroTX]

The thing is my wife and I are TEACHERS... Guess what. The only time we EVER get to take a vacation is the SAME time when kids are off. Every time.

 

I love kids, don't get me wrong. I work with 1,900 teenagers. I just don't want to live with them on vacation.

[ZeroTX]

P.S. we also found out the Royal Caribbean only has a ship in Galveston Nov. - April. Big, huge bummer. Summer cruises on RC are also not an option without flying somewhere else. I am checking into Carnival. Anyone know if they stay in Galveston all year? I guess summer is an option since the kid breaks are spread out over a few weeks.

 

How HOT is it in the Caribbean in summer?

[mehitabel]

Ha! I'm a full-time youth director, also in Texas. Love my kids at work, but you're right--I don't want to vacation with them. Also, very young children drive me nuts anyhow.

 

Good luck with the Galveston option. Also, I've heard that Carnival tends to be kid-heavy at all times of the year because of their low prices. :(

[reallyitsmema]

You need to do your homework. Of course a cruise during spring break is going to have a lot of kids. RCI is known as a family friendly mass market cruise line. They have an extensive kids program that attracts families. Families travel during spring break since many school systems are very strict concerning unexcused absences.

 

Celebrity and Holland America tend to attract less families. The premier cruiselines also have fewer kids.

 

Talk to a travel agent. They should be able to direct you towards a more adult environment. Also consider an adult all inclusive land vacation if you want to avoid kids.

[ZeroTX]

Thanks for the replies. I guess in my ignorance, based on my own life experience, my parents wouldn't have taken me on a luxurious cruise vacation in a million years... I'd be left with grandma for the week. The kids don't appreciate it at all and by growing up with such vacations will never appreciate it as adults, either. I went on my first Europe trip at age 33 and if I had done it at age 16, as some do, I wouldn't have appreciated what I was really experiencing.

 

Nonetheless, some parents spoil their kids and take them on cruises... lesson learned :) It doesn't turn me off of cruising, but will make me look into planning more closely or just accepting the number of teens aboard.

 

P.S., this still doesn't excuse the packs of unsupervised kids below age 12, which were common sightings.

[TupeloHoney]

More expensive cruise lines and more expensive cruises will get you fewer kids. Try a longer cruise - more than 7 days.

 

We cruised the Panama Canal - I think it was 10 days? - over spring break, and there were very few kids. Of course the flip side of that is that my mother-in-law, who was with us and is in her mid 70s, commented on how she felt positively young on that cruise. ;)

[uppitycats]

Thanks for the replies. I guess in my ignorance, based on my own life experience, my parents wouldn't have taken me on a luxurious cruise vacation in a million years... I'd be left with grandma for the week. The kids don't appreciate it at all and by growing up with such vacations will never appreciate it as adults, either. I went on my first Europe trip at age 33 and if I had done it at age 16, as some do, I wouldn't have appreciated what I was really experiencing.

 

Nonetheless, some parents spoil their kids and take them on cruises... lesson learned :) It doesn't turn me off of cruising, but will make me look into planning more closely or just accepting the number of teens aboard.

 

P.S., this still doesn't excuse the packs of unsupervised kids below age 12, which were common sightings.

 

Going somewhere warm during spring break is just asking for having to deal with "a million" kids. And going on a short cruise, on a "family-friendly" cruise line just exacerbates the problem. I also have found that people think that a cruise ship is a "safe environment" and let their kids roam unsupervised. They don't stop to think that the ship is filled with 2,000+ strangers, more than are in my small town!, and that it really isn't all that safe.

 

Try a little more reserved cruise line -- Princess, or HAL, for example...and as long a cruise as you can manage...and not directly during spring break...and you'll avoid at least a few of the little darlings. My opinion here about Carnival -- there are likely to be as many kids, particularly during the times you are able to cruise, and the "adults" don't act a whole lot better, either...

[TupeloHoney]

Nonetheless, some parents spoil their kids and take them on cruises... lesson learned :)

 

You know, you are welcome to your opinions, but what makes you think this is an appropriate comment on the FAMILY cruising board? Just about all of us here have "spoiled" children by your definition.

 

I have a lot to say about this, but I don't think it's worth the effort, so I'll skip it.

[reallyitsmema]

Thanks for the replies. I guess in my ignorance, based on my own life experience, my parents wouldn't have taken me on a luxurious cruise vacation in a million years... I'd be left with grandma for the week. The kids don't appreciate it at all and by growing up with such vacations will never appreciate it as adults, either. I went on my first Europe trip at age 33 and if I had done it at age 16, as some do, I wouldn't have appreciated what I was really experiencing.

 

Nonetheless, some parents spoil their kids and take them on cruises... lesson learned :) It doesn't turn me off of cruising, but will make me look into planning more closely or just accepting the number of teens aboard.

 

P.S., this still doesn't excuse the packs of unsupervised kids below age 12, which were common sightings.

Just because you wouldn't have appreciated a European trip at 16 does not mean that others wouldn't either. Europe is a wonderful place to visit as a family.

 

As far as parents "spoiling" their kids because we take them on cruises, I will not stoop to your level. Cruising on a mass market cruise line is definitely not for you.

[junglejane]

Thanks for the replies. I guess in my ignorance, based on my own life experience, my parents wouldn't have taken me on a luxurious cruise vacation in a million years... I'd be left with grandma for the week. The kids don't appreciate it at all and by growing up with such vacations will never appreciate it as adults, either. I went on my first Europe trip at age 33 and if I had done it at age 16, as some do, I wouldn't have appreciated what I was really experiencing.

 

Nonetheless, some parents spoil their kids and take them on cruises... lesson learned :) It doesn't turn me off of cruising, but will make me look into planning more closely or just accepting the number of teens aboard.

 

P.S., this still doesn't excuse the packs of unsupervised kids below age 12, which were common sightings.

 

Packs of unsupervised kids under age 12 are totally unacceptable.

 

However, I have to take issue with most of the rest of your post. Your experience as a kid is similar to mine -- no cruise vacations, only simple family car trips to go camping or visit relatives. But guess what, times change. The cruise lines are building huge ships with the facilities to accomodate families and actively marketing to them -- particularly a line like Royal Caribbean. Also, prices have been pretty attractive. It's just not the same cruising industry it was 20 years ago. So get used to the new reality and don't go judging parents who take their kids on cruises based on an outdated notion about today's mass market cruise industry.

 

If you are restricted to cruising during school breaks, then the more expensive and longer the cruise, the fewer the kids. But even then you can't expect to entirely avoid kids unless you can actually find an adults only cruise. Plenty of people take their kids on European cruises, and don't forget that the cruise industry is targeting the European market directly. On our Med cruise in 2008 there were tons of Greek kids on the ship (and that was on Celebrity, not known as the ultimate kid friendly line).

 

I agree with Reallyitsmema, maybe mass market cruising is not the ideal vacation for you.

[SuperCoolOne]

Ummm, this is the family forum not the avoid children forums.

 

As far as kids being spoiled by going on a family vacation.....no words there.

 

 

not that I feel I have to justify our choice but we planned a family vacation to go with our kids. Even if we had somewhere to leave our kids for a week, that isn't something we choose to do when they are so young. Maybe when they are teens!

 

We planned a trip that all of us would enjoy. we will have family time and adult time while the kids go off with their friends at camp carnival.

 

I hope you find a vacation to satisfy your needs and that our family doesn't have to deal with this attitude while we try to enjoy our family vacation.

[jerin]

Longer itineraries and sailing 'older lines' (Princess and HAL) will help a lot. With or without our children, we tend to sail when school IS in session because the children on board then are generally more parented than the hordes traveling during school breaks. You're much more likely to get parents who don't want to parent going when they don't have the school for babysitting, and they try to substitute the cruise line. Makes it tough for teachers, but that's how it works.

[Cruising since 3]

I agree with the other posters about the fact that OP should have expected a large number of kids during a spring break cruise. I also wonder what kind of answers the OP expected from the FAMILY board??? Family usually includes all ages.

 

The OP's observations about cruising kids and what they turn into as adults is way off though. As you can see by my screen name, I have been cruising since 3, and mostly on Holland America Ships. My cruises as a child have created a life-long love of cruising and I still have wonderful memories and pictures of those vacations with my grandmother (she died when I was 10).

 

So I have no advice on how to avoid kids; you can try HAL for fewer, but my 3 & 5 year old boys will be there in 7 weeks, so no gaurantees...

[Scrapchick]

I also take issue with you posting this on a board specifically oriented towards families and think it is the wrong place to be asking such a question. I also hate traveling with hordes and hordes of kids but we do have a child and travel during vacation time because it's the only time we CAN travel, just like you... While there is such a thing as too many kids on board, there is also nothing worse than passengers who resent children being on board at all.

 

As others have said, lines such as HAL and Celebrity, plus the gourmet lines like Silverseas and Crystal will attract less kids as they cater to an older, more well heeled crowd than the likes of Carnival and RCCL. The longer the cruise, the less kids will be on it.

 

However, just to warn you... We LIKE sailing with HAL and Celebrity and wish we could afford Silverseas and Crystal. You won't find me on Carnival again.

 

Please keep the anti kid posts to the main boards and leave the families alone here to be supportive of each other. Imagine if I posted on the main boards about how to avoid traveling with all those nasty, drooling old people in their scooters and wheelchairs hogging the hallways and taking forever to move around the ship.... I would rightly be castigated. Intolerance is ugly in whatever form it takes. Children should not be described on these boards as "ankle biters" or depicted as "spoiled" because they go on a cruise with their families.

 

It looks like you are very new to CC from the number of posts you have on these boards and I would respectfully suggest that a little more tact be employed in your future posts. This seems like the wrong board for you in any case...

[tankersbabe]

Best way to avoid them...don't cruise during spring break.

 

Don't cruise and leave the space for me and my spoiled toddler. Book on the older skewed ships and enjoy paying those rates.

 

I will say, we will slow down cruising once he is in school and we have to go during HOT weeks with lots of kids on board. I can't deal with it either. Made the mistake ONCE of cruising during spring break...never ever again. That was a disaster with the packs of Tweens roaming freely unsupervised. The college spring breakers were much better behaved. But I digress.

 

Good luck!

[Onessa]

Nonetheless, some parents spoil their kids and take them on cruises... lesson learned

 

If you want to get serious answers don't be using this kind of rude wording on the Family Board. But since it appears you are looking to get flamed -- stay here.

[Onessa]

It appears you want a cheap cruise from Texas to the Caribbean or Mexico over spring break. To also get a child-free cheap cruise to those areas over spring break really is not likely to happen. Your choices:

1) fly to another port where a more expensive line sails from, or

2) look for another line of work so you can vacation at other times,

 

Several lines have attempted 21YO and older cruises (or similar) -- they don't seem to be very commercially sucessful. Sometimes the charter cruises will be "all adult" but then they also tend to be very skewwed to that group (nudist cruises, gay and/or lesbian, 60+, etc.). Your travel agent may be able to get you information on specific cruises that are more adult oriented -- but for the most part you'll be stuck with some spoiled kids.

[Shelbyjane56]

Our kids have been on cruises and started when the youngest was about 2 yrs old...they loved traveling to new places. We used camp carnival so our kids werent running around and as they got older, it was, if you cant behave, there will be no more cruises. We didnt have a problem, then again, we did spring break one time, college aged kids, some of the guys had thongs on, boy were they burned on the butt after the second day!!:eek: They had a hard time walking much less sitting down. Our 2 teens at the time learned, dont wear a thong lol Atleast we did get a laugh about it and still do. Id rather have younger as in 5th grade than to be on a ship with college kids, who (not all !!) enjoy getting drunk and then puking..not to say adults dont do the same thing. We have to do a summer cruise this year because our son is getting married in st thomas..in the middle of july...hoping that some will choose early summer :)

[geegee1]

Best way to avoid them...don't cruise during spring break.

 

Don't cruise and leave the space for me and my spoiled toddler. Book on the older skewed ships and enjoy paying those rates.

 

I will say, we will slow down cruising once he is in school and we have to go during HOT weeks with lots of kids on board. I can't deal with it either. Made the mistake ONCE of cruising during spring break...never ever again. That was a disaster with the packs of Tweens roaming freely unsupervised. The college spring breakers were much better behaved. But I digress.

 

Good luck!

 

After next year our cruising days are done for a while. My eldest will be in kindergarten. After doing a February break cruise last year, i don't see myself doing another one when kids are off. Found out a few weeks ago for ourselves that the College Spring Breakers were much better behaved the the February breakers.

 

But for the OP to say that kids who go on cruises are spoiled is ridiculous. Due to my father's fear of flying, all of our family vacations were either to the Jersey shore or the rare trip to Boston or the DC area. My first plane ride wasn't until my first cruise when I was 24. I rather I "spoil" my kids by bringing and treating them to experiences I did not have when I was their age than not doing it at all.

[1bellamarie]

How can you avoid kids on a cruise?

 

STAY HOME!

 

Sailing on a "high end" ship won't help! I'll tell ya what...we make a pretty penny and enjoy higher end ships and plan on taking our child (toddler even) with us!

 

So, again, to avoid the "ankle bitters" (RUDE!) STAY HOME! PLEASE!

[islandercruiser]

Wow - pretty harsh words for someone who did not do due dilligence with checking out busy times, what the cruiseline promotes/advertises and just plain rude for suggesting that anyone taking their kids on a cruise is spoiling them. Perhaps the little phrase that I am sure you are familiar with "homework" should have been done?

 

As for the elevator experience - that is just plain rude and yes even I as a parent that takes my kid "gasp" on trips would not be pleased with those pranks.

[VikkiGarcia]

The OP only has 8 postings so they have not figured out Cruise Critic...so please go easy.

 

I have 2 teens and am not offended by his post in the least. I have sailed with as few as 23 kids aboard up to almost 1000. They are completely different experiences. If you want to find the least amount of kids during a holiday sailing you will have to focus on the ship itself..not the itinerary or departure port. Find the ships that do NOT have a dedicated teen club (usually the oldest, smallest ships in each cruiseline) There will still be kids/teens but not in the numbers you experienced.

[Scarlett Fever]

Go on the European cruises.

We just finished our cruise on RCI Indy - with our "spoiled" child - last week and chatted with the bartenders in the champagne bar about his experiences with cruises. He said the cruises in Europe are mostly retired people with maybe 10 kids on board. There ya go!

I don't think the experience you had is the norm. There were kids on our cruise last week of all ages but we never saw unruly kids terrorizing the ship or elevators. Honestly, it was the adults who were roaming the halls, talking loudly at 2:00am or running me over just to get the last lounge chair in the sun that were intolerable.

You get vacation, right? Take a week off and cruise in October or late April. I bet you have a different experience.